


Symbols and Suspicion [BtVS/SG1]

by Bumpkin



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Stargate SG-1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-24
Updated: 2017-08-24
Packaged: 2018-12-19 08:26:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11893842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bumpkin/pseuds/Bumpkin
Summary: Originally written in a quick dash off manner a part of a larger work on TtHM called ‘Tales from the Barman’ - Daniel meets Xander.





	Symbols and Suspicion [BtVS/SG1]

Description: Originally written in a quick dash off manner a part of a larger work on TtHM called ‘Tales from the Barman’ - [found here.](http://www.tthfanfic.com/Story-11757/Methos+Tales+from+the+Barman.htm) Revised somewhat from it’s original version.

Disclaimer: Xander and crew – not mine. Daniel J and crew – not mine. Life sucks, ‘nuff said. *g*

Symbols and Suspicion [BtVS/SG1]  
By Marns AKA Bumpkin  
Rated: PG  
Gen  
(Wordcount: 1,595)  


Daniel arrived at Nights, the bar he had been directed to by his colleague, with plenty of time to spare and breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn’t wanted to start off the meeting on a bad footing, so to speak, by showing up late. It would have left him in an even more awkward position as he’d only contacted Rupert Giles, the former curator of the British Museum, for some help with a bit of translating as a last ditch effort.

Cleveland was a bit further than he would normally go, but they really needed this translation. Things were getting more than a bit hairy on PX9-865. And since he’d known the older man had been always been fascinated by some of the more obscure and legend based items with their attending symbology – well, he’d hoped, perhaps, that Rupert’s fascination with the obscure would be just the ticket to unraveling the poser of a translation he was struggling with at the moment. It certainly wouldn’t hurt anyway. They really needed to figure out what they’d touched that they shouldn’t have and find out how to fix what was already done.

Going in and sitting at the bar Daniel looked around curiously. It was a nice enough place he conceded, not nice enough to let Daniel in on why it had been the place selected for the meet though.

A picture on the wall behind the bar proper caught his eye and he choked. ‘Okay, maybe the reason Dr. Giles wanted to use here was because whoever owns the place is a close personal friend – or at least I hope so with that kind of blackmail material on display!’ Daniel thought with a very O’Neill-style smirk as he read the inscription on the embarrassing picture. ‘Xander hunh? I guess he’s the owner of this fine establishment. Looks like he’s got a ‘Jack’ sense of humor at any rate. Nice to think I’m not the only multiple PhD out there that has to put up with a immature comedian.’ He rolled his eyes at the thought of his teammate and some of his more boneheaded pranks.

The barman chose that moment to come over of course and Daniel had to fight off a embarrassed blush. At the young man with the eye-patch’s raised eye-brow, Daniel just said, “Wait staff seem to have this uncanny ability to know when you are going to be doing something stupid and always approach at that moment don’t they?”

The barman grinned crookedly, “Of course, it’s one of the perks of working in a place like this – otherwise it would just be pointless menial servitude.” Daniel grinned back at the light-hearted reply as the young man continued, “Anyway, questions of servitude and revenge-ish timing aside, what can I get ya? Don’t be afraid to ask for something exotic either, or non-alcoholic, we have an eclectic clientele and I try to keep what everyone likes available.”

“You try to keep it available? I guess that makes this your place?” Daniel asked surprised.

“Yeppers, Xander Harris, proud owner of this fine establishment at your service.” He said grandly as he made a sweeping theatrical gesture, ending with a little bob of a bow. “So is there anything I can tempt your palate with on this fine evening?”

Daniel realized he was taking up the man’s time, which was probably valuable with him being the owner and all, and he still hadn’t ordered yet. “Oh, sorry, I’ll just have some coffee – the real stuff, none of the instant crap.” Xander nodded and disappeared to fill his order.

While he was waiting, Daniel found his eyes sliding back to the pictures on the wall, finding the one of Giles again unerringly. He was dying to ask about it, but was sure that he would just get told to mind his own business.

Xander, returning with the coffee Daniel had ordered, noticed where he was looking and grinned. He said a bit wickedly, “Wild picture hunh? You would never recognize the guy in it in a million years from it nowadays though.”

Daniel shook his head. “Yeah, you’re not kidding. I knew the man back when he was still Curator of the London Museum, and I almost didn’t recognize him. Actually, I just thought the guy only had a passing resemblance to someone I knew until I read the signature.”

“You know G-man?” Xander said with some surprise and maybe some suspicion. Daniel started to understand, maybe, another reason why he’d been directed to this place for the meet. Rupert it seemed might have some not so nice persons after him, though Daniel couldn’t think of a reason why that would be. Xander in the meantime had rallied quickly, and now was fishing.

“Hey, you know he lives here now, in the States that is, not too far from here. Think he would be interested in a visit from you?” Eyes narrow and assessing were fixed on his guest as he waited for a reply.

Daniel, knowing he’d inadvertently tripped some kind of alarm in the younger man, hurried to defuse the situation, “Actually, I am here in Cleveland expressly to see him – he was the one who picked your bar here as the place for us to meet.”

Xander relaxed visibly at his answer. “Ah, coolness then. What’s the meet about if you don’t mind me asking?”

And just like that he was back to being the affable and goofy barman Daniel had first met, like a switch had been thrown. Daniel wanted to shake his head, ‘Man, talk about mood swings!’ but he restrained himself.

He decided that he probably didn’t have to worry too much about national security with the obscurity of the language the translation needed, so showing Xander shouldn’t cause any problems. He pulled out the pages he had painstakingly copied the passages he needed onto and showed the younger man saying, “No, I don’t mind at all. I called him to see if he could help me translate this…”

Xander glanced over the symbols stark on the pages, clear even in the dim lighting of the bar and blinked.

“That’s Gobbledygook.” He said with some authority.

Daniel huffed back a combination sigh and laugh. Shades of Jack indeed. He said with some exasperation, “I assure you, its not gibberish or nonsense of any sort – it’s an actual language…”

“Called Gahl’ab’y’guk.” Giles said and Daniel jumped on his stool. He hadn’t heard or seen the older man approach.

Xander just grinned and said, “G-man, good to see ya.” Giles threw a pained look in the youngest man’s direction.

“Xander how many times have I asked you not to call me that appalling…” His gaze fell on his surrogate son’s unrepentant grin and he just pinched his nose for a minute before huffing a small laugh as he said, “Oh bloody hell, never mind. Call me whatever you want, you little…”

Xander just laughed unrepentantly at Giles’ frustration as Daniel watched with amusement. Giles then turned his attention back to the man who had requested his assistance,

“At any rate, what Xander tried to tell you was the language in question is called Gahl’ab’y’guk, not gobbledygook. None of my kids could pronounce their way out of a paper bag if their lives depended on it, but reading and transcribing what they know is a whole other ball of wax.”

Daniel was stunned, “You mean both of you can read this? I mean really read, not just puzzle out the gist from bits and pieces?”

Xander was the one who answered him, “Yep, and at a glance I can tell you the first line there says “‘Danger, warning, termination.’ – I guess the Gobbleyduck version of ‘big red button, press to kiss your butt bu-bye’.”

Daniel looked on, half in amazement and half bemused as Dr. Giles again berated the barman he obviously regarded as a son, “Xander, for heaven’s sake! It’s Gahl’ab’y’guk as you very well know, and don’t you think you are being a bit over simplistic?”

“Nope, take a gander for yourself G-man, it’s actually pretty clear - especially considering how most of these things end up translating, y’know – like mud.” Xander replied with another showing of his lopsided grin and a shrug. Some more customers had come in while they had been chatting and now he wandered off to go and serve them.

Daniel and Giles watched him go and then turned back to each other. Daniel said, “That is one young man I’m not going to forget easily – I can see why you left pure academia, and stayed away if that is the caliber of student you acquired.”

Giles smiled as he replied, “Xander was one of the worst students you could ever dream of actually. He was irreverent, lacking in focus and disruptive to no end, but he certainly turned out well in the end.” A soft smile on his face as he looked at the wall his picture was on along with several other girls and a sword, “They all did actually.”

As both of them bent back to the translation, which now looked to be easier to get than he thought, Daniel contemplated all he had seen tonight. Rupert Giles wasn’t the man Daniel had known from before, he had changed. He was more, and why not? Daniel wasn’t the same man Giles had known from before either, his time at the SGC had changed him as well. He had learned more than a new language this night, and that wasn’t a bad thing at all.

-end-  
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Marns  
~pN

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